Short takes on Issues

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Paying for the play • The new owner of Real Salt Lake should be commended for pledging to fulfill a promise made by the MLS team's previous owner. Dell Loy Hansen, in explaining how and why he decided to fully invest in the soccer franchise, said he accepts former owner Dave Checketts' deal with Salt Lake City to give $7.5 million to a regional soccer complex planned for a northwest area of the capital. Checketts made the promise in order to secure public funding for $110 million RSL stadium in Sandy. Hansen also said he will create a soccer academy for standout Utah soccer players, another deal he assumed when he bought the team. Checketts deserves credit for launching RSL, but it seems Hansen will be the guy who makes good on the franchise's financial commitments to the community where it plays.

No place to play • Sadly, it looks as though the future of the old Granite High School campus in South Salt Lake will not be as any kind of community-centered development but probably just more commercial buildings of the type the city already has more than enough of. City officials worked hard to save the century-old building at 3305 S. 500 East, initially seeking voter approval for a bond to transform the campus into an attractive public complex including a swimming pool and theater. When opponents of the bond defeated the proposal, a developer attempted to turn the campus into a motion picture and television production facility. Now that deal has fallen through, and the property most likely will go on the open market to the highest bidder. Mayor Cherie Wood and City Council members deserve credit for their efforts to preserve the campus and improve the community.

Utahns have paid for Medicaid • Some Utahns believed that Gov. Gary Herbert's reluctance to reveal the results of research into the pros and cons of a state expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act would dissipate once the legislative session was over. It's understandable that the governor, who has the say-so on whether to accept millions of federal dollars to provide health care to low-income Utahns, didn't want legislators to have an easy platform to react to his decision. But the session is over, and Herbert says he is still waiting for missing key elements of the study, even though there was a draft report six weeks ago, and a "final draft" has been under review since Feb. 19. The bottom line, whatever else the study might reveal, is that Utah would be sending millions in Utahns' tax dollars to other states if Herbert doesn't agree to the Medicaid expansion, and that would be irresponsible.

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